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Speech on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (556 Words)

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Speech on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse!

The unusual increase in the uses and abuses of alcohol and various drugs during the last two decades has become a frightening problem. Their adverse effects have produced serious concerns among the sociologists and social scientists.

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Parents, guardians, teachers and the public at large, have also been deeply worried about the devastating consequences of alcoholism and drug abuse on the family life, social and personal life. Reports of serious accidents and murders committed during intoxicating states are not uncommon.

It is needless to point out that along with the widespread use of drugs; there is also a lot of misuse of drugs. This misuse leads to abuse of drug or drug dependence. Drug dependence refers to both psychological and physiological dependence. Drug abuse indicates excessive consumption of a drug regardless of whether an individual is truly dependent on it. Drug abuse may however, subsequently lead to drug dependence.

Use of drugs and alcohols is not quite a new thing. In the 6th century B.C. Persians were quite renowned in the use of alcohol. Similarly, people belonging to many early societies and cultures used alcohol extensively.

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In India, the wide use of intoxicating drugs like ‘Somarasa’ goes back to around 2000 B.C. Kings and emperors used plenty of alcohols and drugs. In the Ramayana and the Mahabharata also there is reference to the use of drugs. During the Muslim rules in India, along with strong wine opium was used.

The other important drugs used in ancient India were known as cannabis and cocaine opium. In Orissa and some other states of India, women use to administer opium to small children to make them sleep or keep them quiet.

Opium is also taken by the people of Orissa and other states of India, specially by rural people to overcome certain minor illnesses like anxiety and worry, backaches, cold, pain and allied illnesses. In the interior districts of Orissa, tribal men and women take a strong wine named ‘Handia’. It is a type of country wine, very intoxicating in nature.

A psychoactive substance refers to one which when taken into the body can influence consciousness or state of mind. Psychoactive substance induced organic mental disorders have been differentiated from psychoactive substance induced disorders by DSM III-R.

While psychoactive substance induced organic mental disorder refers to the direct, acute or chronic effects of psycho­active substances on the nervous system, psychoactive substance use disorders refer to maladaptive behaviour associated with regular use of psychoactive substances. According to DSM III-R the two diagnosis usually coexist

About 1.4 billion prescriptions for more than 10,000 different chemical substances are written in the United States every year. About 20 per cent of them are for psychoactive or mood changing drugs like tranquilizers, sedatives, stimulants, sleeping pills and analgesics. It is estimated that 50 per cent of the patients suffering from chronic pain take between 1 to 5 pain relievers and 25 per cent of this group develop physical dependence on one of those drugs.

A survey conducted in 1985 shows that use of illicit drugs is more commonly found among the young adult population than among other age groups. It is interesting to note that particularly in the western countries drug use by women is increasing in a faster speed than by the men.